GMO Facts

GMOs by the numbers

Genetically engineered crop plantings and their performance have been laboriously analyzed for nearly two decades now. There are two organizations in particular who have recently published comprehensive compilations of statistics. We have shared below what we feel are some of the particularly notable facts from these sources.

We do encourage you to visit the original sources for the full studies: The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications’ (ISAAA) annual brief and PG Economics’ numerous peer-reviewed papers examining global GM crop use, environmental impacts, income and production effects, and much more.

Production & Growth

28 countries currently grow GE crops

448 million acres of GE crops were being grown across the world in 2014

The U.S. leads the way in biotech crop production with 180 million acres

Commodity crops like corn (maize), soybean and cotton are the most common GE crops

Also in production: fruits and vegetables like papaya, eggplant, squash, and of course, apples!

Economic Benefits

From 1996-2013, the global farm income gain from GE crops has been US$133.5 billion

GE crops have helped alleviate poverty for >16.5 million farmers and their families

Farmers in developing countries have experienced the highest yield gains

In 2013, farmers received over $4 for each dollar invested in GE crop seeds globally

Environmental Benefits

In 2013, lower fuel use due to reduced tillage with GE crops had the equivalent impact as removing 12.4 million cars from the road for one year

From 1996-2013, GE crops have led to a 1.2 billion pounds reduction in pesticide spraying

GE crops allow farmers to grow more on less land; to produce the same amount of conventional crops, the total additional area of land needed would be equal to 11% of the arable land in the U.S.